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Democratic Debate Wrap-Up: The Race Remains the Same
Two hours and forty-eight minutes later, the third Democratic primary debate is finally over. Nothing said Thursday night will significantly impact the race; Biden still leads with Warren and Sanders close behind.
ABC News hosted the latest scrum, filled with more Trump-bashing, tax-raising, and spending, spending, spending. According to party rules, only ten candidates appeared. In addition to the top three, the dais included Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Klobuchar, O’Rourke, and Yang.
Without Tulsi, Marianne, or the red-state outliers, Thursday’s debate was duller than the previous affairs — and that’s saying something.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang kicked off the festivities by saying his campaign will give $1,000 a month for a year to 10 families, a UBI sweepstakes requiring contestants to sign up on his website. The other candidates openly laughed at the stunt.
Julián Castro also had an early misstep with a clumsy attack on Joe Biden’s age. “Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?” Castro sneered as the crowd groaned. He would have lost his senior-citizen votes if he had any to begin with.
Biden recoiled from a more substantive strike on Obama’s immigration record, this time from moderator Jorge Ramos. “What Latinos should look at, comparing this president to the president we have is outrageous,” he said, then added a flat-out lie. “Number one, we didn’t lock people up in cages. We didn’t separate families. We didn’t do all of those things.”
Yes, you did.
Another moderator, Linsey Davis, asked about Biden’s 1975 comment that he didn’t “feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather” when it came to segregation. Biden didn’t lose his cool, instead outlining his record fighting racism.
To his credit, the left-leaning Ramos questioned Sanders about socialism. “You admit that Venezuela does not have free elections, but still, you refuse to call Nicolas Maduro a dictator,” Ramos said. “Can you explain why? And what are the main differences between your kind of socialism and the one being imposed in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua?”
Sanders called Maduro “vicious tyrant,” but added, “to equate what goes on in Venezuela with what I believe is extremely unfair.”
“I agree with [what] goes on in Canada and Scandinavia,” the Vermont senator continued. “Guaranteeing health care to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on earth not to provide paid family and medical leave.”
Warren regurgitated her plans to solve every problem under heaven by taxing the rich and spending more. Despite being a top-tier candidate, she barely said anything memorable.
Beto O’Rourke framed nearly every answer with references to the El Paso Walmart shooting. “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he said. “We’re not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore.” Thus, ensuring he’ll never be elected president or vice president.
Cory Booker dropped his Spartacus theatrics and returned to the affable moderate that first made him a national figure. The oddest performance went to Kamala Harris, who set aside her usual gravitas for a giggly triviality. Loosening up is fine, but Harris seemed two glasses in to a bottle of rosé.
Pete Buttigieg turned in another hyper-earnest TED-talk, while Amy Klobuchar stuck to her failing strategy of impenetrable dullness. Neither had a breakout.
The nearly three-hour debate shouldn’t shift the primary race. There were no masterful takedowns, career-making/breaking gaffes, or viral moments. Mercifully, the next faceoff isn’t for another month.
Published in Elections, Politics
I think that’s Bernie’s way of warning Us there will be less bathroom tissue.
Eye don’t know…
I did not play a drinking game but I was sipping on Appalachian Apple Pie Moonshine last night to help me get through it. I watched the last 50 minutes of it this morning and it was hard not to pick up the jar again.
Yeah, we need some of the Ricochet doctors to chime in on this. Is there really much less paperwork with a Medicare patient than with one on private insurance?
Amen, Brother.
Beto has gone full Bullworth.
This feels more like a student council election with kids making promises about facilities, cafeteria menus, curriculum and other things over which they will have no control. These are ridiculous people.
It amazes (and depresses) me that at several points every single Democratic candidate has openly proposed pure dictatorial power, and the press and the public seem unconcerned.
Jon,
I started watching some very old videos of the Rebbe on Chabad.org. I lost track of time and missed the whole thing. I hear Biden’s dentures came loose. Sorry I missed that part. I was just curious but does Klobuchar remind you of Walter Mondale in a dress?
Regards,
Jim
He’s hanging on by the skin of his teeth . . .
Get with it, Randy. They’re killing us. Of course it’s violence.
That’s certainly the way to get more doctors. I guess PA’s will be OK.
I can’t even joke about government nationalizing healthcare.
Yeah. doctors are the problem.
And moar government is the answer.
Just to add on to my earlier comment, you can read more about that exchange and an analysis of it from this Reason.com article.
The final paragraph from said article:
Joe Biden is a rusty weather vane who has lost several miles per hour off his fastball. And he might just be the only plausible Democratic nominee to realize that a president can’t, and shouldn’t, be king. God help us all.
Bet you a beer the graphs comparing public school teachers against school administration is similar . . .
Same in universities.
The size of the physical plant of the high school that I attended has increased by about %40. The size of the student body has not. Even if they actually added the swimming pool that I used to sell passes for, they don’t need all that space.